I admit it, I’m kind of a squirrel. I like having my winter supplies in as early as possible. I called Markus our wood guy and orders for loads had dropped off so I told him to refill our supply. It looks like we used about 4 loads last winter so it cost us $140 for heating our house, cooking the food and heating water. Not bad!

We got a lot done around the place yesterday, planting elderberries and witch hazel, trellising the grapes plus the work that Alyssa from Sustainable by Nature did. They are working out really well, makes it easier to keep up with all of the spring chores.

This is what greeted us when we got home from the Herb Conference in Mt. View Arkansas today. The Fruit trees were in full bloom, daffodils were going strong and a great rain coming down. If you have never been to this herb conference, if you at all interested in medicinal herbs, this is something you will want to go to next year! Great, really knowledgeable speakers, walks that will introduce you to the useful plants you probably walk by every day and some really nice people to network and share this amazing skill and passion with. There is a link to the Ozark Folk Center on the right hand side of our blog, hope to see you there next year!

We are sponsoring 2 herb classes at our house this weekend, the first is Ozark Native Plants for your Garden. That’s on Friday. The second class is Massage Oils and Healing Salves. Both are being taught by Sasha Daucus, a long time ozarks healer and midwife. Should be a great weekend!

I’m always surprised when people say they haven’t heard of or been to Urban Roots Farm. I think this is what the future of food production will be, less food travel distance. Between California’s drought and all of the fuel it takes to deliver foods from 1000’s of miles away, locally produced food will end up being a bargain. Plus, knowing that the food doesn’t have toxic sprays put on it because it’s close and you can drop in see how your food is grown. Give Adam and Mel a call and either join their CSA, or buy from them at the farmers market on Republic Rd.

These daffodils are Tulsa flowers brought over by some friends. Ours are a little behind these, but are coming on strong. I made some sauerkraut a couple of days ago and with the temperature the way it is it shouldn’t be long before we will be eating it. Gorgeous day out, pedaling and gardening.

I looked out and Alyssa was working in the garden in the rain. She planted broccoli, onions and several other young plants out there. Gloria and I figured out what we wanted to eat this year, how much, and how often, and the gardeners job is to make that happen, conditions permitting. This will be a learning year for us, and we will be thinking about next year, what more we could grow to offset what we buy. The long term goal is to grow as much of the things we eat on our property as possible and supplement what we don’t or can’t grow with things from local growers. Lofty goal, but getting closer.

A friend that knows we ferment foods gave us this crock. It was made by her co-worker. It is a great design, you add your veggies to be fermented in the center of the big pot, then use the 2 half moon pieces to weigh them down under the liquid. Next you add water to the trough around the top of the crock and put on the lid. The lid is designed to let the gases out, but not let oxygen in. Great work, I will be putting it to work soon.